


Just A Dream

by ElisaPhoenix



Series: Marvel What If's [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Heavy Angst, Hurt Stephen Strange, M/M, Mama Bear Stephen Strange, Mental Breakdown, Mental Instability, Other, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Stephen Strange & Wong Friendship, Tony Stark/Stephen Strange parenting Peter Parker | Supremefamily | Strange Family, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Wong is a Good Bro (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-09-23 01:00:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20331430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElisaPhoenix/pseuds/ElisaPhoenix
Summary: Tony is dead and now Peter is nowhere to be found. Stephen's idea of coping? Not to.





	Just A Dream

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by those assholes at Sony who are taking Spiderman out of the MCU (although they're back to negotiating so fingers crossed), so I wrote a what if fic.

_He had nothing left._

First Tony...and now Peter. His son's absence hit him harder than his husband's death though. The teen had vanished. There was absolutely no trace of him and no matter how long Stephen looked...he couldn't find his cub. He tried Peter's hair, tracking spells, and old-fashioned walking around and checking the boy's usual haunts. But nothing. He asked classmates, the team, and even Mr. Delmar, but all he got were funny looks.

_It was as if he never existed._

And that was what started Stephen's fast spiral into depression. He moved back to the Sanctum with nothing more than his belongings, the wedding band on his left hand, and a broken heart. Even Levi was listless. The cloak was partially a physical manifestation of Stephen's thoughts and so it wasn't as animated as it used to be. That had been Wong's first clue that something was very wrong.

The Sorcerer Supreme wasn't himself anymore. He was usually found staring off into the distance with a glazed look in his eyes that told anyone else that no one was home. Stephen was numb. Any attempts Wong made to hopefully bring the doctor's spark back was met by silence and a blank stare that had goosebumps crawling across his skin. There was no Sorcerer Supreme, no Stephen Strange...just a shell of a man.

Then, one day, Stephen was visited by what looked like a flying spider robot, and that was the first time in months that life sparked back into the man's eyes. It didn't last long though. Stephen was always found with the small drone, and while he spoke more, Wong almost wished he didn't. Because Stephen always spoke to the spider drone.

"Peter...it's late. Go to bed."

The drone would just chirp and stay by Stephen until he chuckled (a hollow sound that sounded distorted and wrong).

"Alright. I'll go to bed too."

Things got worse. A teddy bear wearing a red and blue suit came into the picture and it was another thing that was always with Stephen. He spoke to it, cared for it, and took it everywhere with him. Stephen no longer wore his robes, opting to wear street clothes, and he drank more tea and burned more incense like a man possessed. When Wong asked him why, it was one of the few times Stephen actually answered him, and with a look that said that it wasn't exactly a secret.

"Peter says I smell like tea leaves and incense. It calms him."

Wong made the mistake of asking who Peter was and Stephen had gone ballistic. In angry tears he shouted at Wong to stop pretending that Peter wasn't there, and the other sorcerer wisely kept his mouth shut. Stephen obviously had lost someone and was not coping well...in fact, he wasn't coping at all. 

Stephen neglected his duties to the point that Wong had to take them on, he barely ate and only slept as long as he at least had the teddy bear. The stuffed animal had been misplaced one time and the doctor tore apart the Sanctum until he found it. Wong always kept note of its location after that.

Nothing got better. 

Wong was stuck watching his best friend waste away over a teddy bear and a drone that he believed to be this 'Peter'. When Stephen showed no sign of recovering from whatever trauma he endured, Wong finally intervened and hid both the stuffed animal and the drone. As he expected, the doctor flipped his lid. He again tore apart the Sanctum looking for his unhealthy coping mechanisms until the other sorcerer finally told him that enough was enough.

"What did you do with him?!"  
"I'm just trying to help you Stephen! This isn't healthy and I can't watch you do this anymore!"  
Stephen ignored him though. "PETER!"  
When he tried to resume his wild search, Wong grabbed his arm. "Stephen...Peter _doesn't exist._ The Time Stone must have messed with your memories when you used it to view those timelines before battling Thanos."

The former neurosurgeon's response was to hide away in his room and cry, and because he didn't have the teddy bear, he didn't sleep either. Days passed where the only sleep he got was when his body forced him to, and he regressed back to his days of living as a shell. Wong intervened again and through the rest of the team, found a therapist for Stephen. She helped, and eventually she said that the teddy bear was alright as long as Stephen continued to live his life as normally as possible. There were times when Stephen fell off the band wagon and Wong had to take away the stuffed animal, but he eventually got back on his feet and was able to take on his duties as Sorcerer Supreme again.

Although the therapist was good and managed to get Stephen living his life again, she could not bring back the spark. No one could. Stephen Strange was not the man he used to be...and he never was again. When Tony died and Peter vanished, Stephen went with them.

Only a shell remained.

**Author's Note:**

> For what it's worth...I was on the verge of tears the entire time I wrote this.


End file.
